Closings

Last week, East Village brunch fixture The Sunburnt Cow announced that it was throwing in the towel. “Following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy we are sadly calling it a night,” it wrote on Facebook, announcing that April 27 would be its last bottomless brunch. Last August, when the Cow celebrated its 10th year on Avenue C, owner Heathe St. Clair told us the restaurant had suffered a quarter of a million in damages when it was flooded by Hurricane Sandy. The Aussie outpost was then operating only on weekends, and St. Clair admitted it might never return to normal. Now he’s posted a heartfelt goodbye letter on Facebook.Keep Reading »

The art world was infinitely bummed to find out LES’s DODGEgallery will be closing its doors next month, on its fourth anniversary. Founder Kristen Dodge made the announcement via e-mail on March 10th, expressing her gratitude to the gallery’s roster of artists, staff and supporters.Keep Reading »

Netflix continues to clobber the local movie-buying landscape (R.I.P., Photoplay). DVD Funhouse in the East Village is the latest casualty. Employees said the store has another month or two until they lock up for good.Keep Reading »

While I usually look down on eulogizing something that hasn’t yet passed, I thoroughly endorse any preemptive tributes for Goodbye Blue Monday. This isn’t to say that I want or expect the longstanding Bushwick venue to close. The opposite is true: I think anyone who’s ever gigged or killed time there should come out black-veils-and-all and throw money to its piles of twisted scrap-heap metal and forever-untouched records.Keep Reading »

Grand St. Bakery, a vintage general store, moved into an old, un-renovated store space on Grand about four years ago. The space hasn’t always been easy. (Photos: Elizabeth Flock)

Trendy shops open every other week on Grand Street near Bedford Avenue, but across the BQE in Williamsburg, the same street is experiencing growing pains. At least 16 shuttered storefronts line the six-block stretch along Grand from Union to Bushwick Avenue.

Spaces belonging to mom-and-pop stores have been put up for grabs, but instead of being replaced by beard-wax emporiums and bespoke monocle shops, their “For Rent” signs have lingered for months. While at least one developer is banking on “a migration to the eastern part of Williamsburg” as he replaces the Liberty department store with a Gene Kaufman-designed building at 774 Grand, it seems this part of Grand won’t be undergoing a major transformation in the immediate future.

Here’s a sampling of Grand Street shops that are currently closed or in need of tenants:

Normcore is Gail Busche’s nightmare. Ask the co-owner of Archangel Antiques to describe each decade’s fashion in a word or two and she doesn’t hesitate: “’20s short, ’30s slinky, ’40s strong, ’50s elegant, ’60s fun, ’70s out there.” But after that? “The ‘80s was so bad I was happy I could still wear ’40s. And after that, there was no style.”

The East Village store plans to close in June. Busche, 75, and partner and co-owner Ricahrd Cullen, 71, say they can’t keep up with a rent increase and competition with other nearby clothing shops. Back in August 2012, Cullen told The Local East Village that Archangel’s then-rent of $4800 had sextupled since the couple first occupied 334 E. 9th Street.

Steve Cannon, the owner of A Gathering of the Tribes, seems to have finally lost his years-long fight to keep his East Village gallery space. But he isn’t giving up just yet.

In a letter to supporters, the gallery says, “Our landlord Lorraine Zhang has put 285 E. 3rd St. on the market, and is moving to evict Steve Cannon and Tribes on April 15.” According to the letter, the gallery, which has been in the neighborhood for some 24 years, has exhausted all appeals – so it’s looking for someone to buy the historic building, between Avenues C and D, and turn it into a residence for creative types.Keep Reading »

After this Friday, Williamsburg’s hip parents will have to look elsewhere for boutique, European baby shoes.

Wonderwolf, the children’s clothing and accessories store that always has the teepee out on Metropolitan Ave., is closing its doors for good on Feb. 28, according to an announcement on the store’s Facebook page.Keep Reading »

Photoplay, one of the city’s last great video stores in this age of Netflix, will close on Wednesday night at 11 p.m. after 12 years in Greenpoint. A store clerk, Evan, said owner Michael Sayers informed him of the closing a week ago.Keep Reading »

With the hubbub over 285 Kent’s closure still bubbling, another beloved venue, East Williamsburg’s Steel Drums, has been shut down until further notice. Aurora Halal, organizer of the underground Mutual Dreaming parties, tells us her annual PPU Visual Dreaming party, on Friday, got a surprise visit from the police.Keep Reading »

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About B + B

Bedford + Bowery is where downtown Manhattan and north Brooklyn intersect. Produced by NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in collaboration with New York magazine, B + B covers the East Village, Lower East Side, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and beyond. Want to contribute? Send a tip? E-mail the editor.